


Laid Bare

by templefugate



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Insecurity, Light Angst, One Shot, POV Character of Color
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-15 11:20:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7220311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/templefugate/pseuds/templefugate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Wayne Manor's strange and foreign walls aren't as empty as Duke originally thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laid Bare

The Wayne Manor was a labyrinth, full of never ending hallways and doors that could take someone anywhere except nowhere. Duke felt minuscule, a mere speck trapped in a giant maze. He checked his watch and held back a sigh. By now he could have mapped out the entire Bat Cave.

The room was exactly as Alfred had described it-furnished yet empty. It looked like something straight out of a movie, with gleaming floors and snow white bed sheets. The walls were bare, save for a single framed black and white photo of what looked like a section of downtown Gotham.

"Well," Duke said, dropping his suitcase to the floor, "I suppose that I can get used to this."

The lump in his throat, the one that had formed when he'd first set foot on the manor's emerald lawns, tightened. This was like one of the fairy tales his mother had read to him when he was a boy, the kind of story where a peasant boy gets adopted by a king.

A story too good to be true.

Bouncing between foster homes-as if the last word even applied to them-had been daunting, but this?

Duke pulled off his jacket. It was red and yellow and had been given to him for his fifteenth birthday by his mother. It was a little small, the sleeves ending before they could reach his wrists, but he doubted too many people noticed. He hugged it to his chest.

"First you steal my mantle and now my room?"

Duke froze, his body stiffening like it were made of leather.

"Damian," he responded, voice even. The words died on his lips before he could say anything else.

Besides Bruce and Alfred, the manor was supposed to be completely empty-too much space for too few people.

"Thomas," Damian replied. He moved forward and past him, making not a sound with each step. Damian even opened the dresser's top drawer silently. He pulled up his hand, metal gleaming in the light.

Duke dropped the jacket to the floor and spread out his legs, holding his fists towards his face. If he needed to run, he could-one leap backwards and a good sprint could probably get him back to the first floor in seconds whether or not he bothered with the stairs. If he needed to fight (which, considering the place and person was probable) then surely the other kid could only take so many punches.

Instead, Damian merely dropped the knife to the floor. The sound echoed through the room and in Duke's ears. Damian wordlessly continued digging through the drawer.

"If it makes you feel any better, though it really shouldn't," Damian spoke, "I got lost when I first arrived."

"Thanks?"

Damian didn't so much as even take a momentary glance up towards him.

"Alfred never mentioned that you were home."

"And for all he and my father know, I never was." He turned, a smirk spread across his cheeks. He pushed something Duke couldn't quite see into his belt before leaning down and grabbing the knife. "I do, after all, have my own business that I must attend to." Turning back one more time, he closed the drawer.

"I suppose that I can keep a secret," Duke replied. He leaned down and grabbed his own things, though his eyes never left the other boy.

With one leap, Damian was across the room and on the window sill. "You have to be able to if you want to survive in this business, though I'm sure he already told you that." The window sill opened without even a slight creak, and cool evening Gotham air danced across Duke's cheeks.

"You're one door off," Damian said. "You were almost right."

He leaped outside, jumping into the sky with such surety that one would think he could fly like his namesake.

Before heading into the hallway, Duke shut the window and locked it. Clutching his suitcase tighter, he descended back into the hallway. For a moment Duke stood absolutely still, the thudding of his heart against his chest his only movement. Just before he could turn right, he looked around-left, down, and up-for any other visitors that might have popped in for an unplanned visit. When he stepped into his room- and it had to be his, Duke thought, even if it felt more alien than the surface of Venus-he repeated the process. Only his reflection greeted him.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really excited that Duke is an official member of the Bat family, but I hope his parents do recover from the Joker serum. Duke clearly cares about them, and their flashback sequences were one of the best parts of We Are Robin.
> 
> Hey, maybe they'll recover and move in with Duke. Bruce's house is certainly big enough tl hold them!
> 
> (I may or may not write a fic where that happens.)


End file.
